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Sotheby's Loses $12 Million on Taubman Sale, But Wins Top Auction Price For Americana Week
ArtfixDaily / January 25th, 2016
Sotheby’s secured an overall total of $18.9 million for its Americana Week auctions ending Sunday. The news came after Friday's announcement that the auction house had an estimated $12 million loss in the fourth quarter of 2015 as a result of the A. Alfred Taubman sale, featuring ...
Knoedler Gallery Trial Begins Over Fake Rothko
New York Times / January 25th, 2016
Ten lawsuits erupted from the scandal over $63 million in fake artworks sold through New York's once venerable Knoedler & Company gallery. Over the course of 15 years, some 30 works were passed off to clients as by the hands of modern masters---from Jackson Pollock to Mark Rothko. Now, the ...
Library Refuses $6 Million Offer For Its Grant Wood Painting
THOnline / January 25th, 2016
The board of trustees at an Iowa library voted unanimously last fall to reject an offer of $6 million from the John Surovek Art Gallery in Palm Beach, Fla., on behalf of an anonymous client, for a painting it owns by famed Regionalist artist Grant Wood. According to reports, ...
Museum Acquisition of Van Dyck Portrait Questioned
Independent / January 23rd, 2016
A recent announcement by the Georgia Museum of Art of a 17th-century art acquistion came under scrutiny after art historians pointed out that the original work hangs in the U.K. at Cambridge's Fitzwilliam Museum. Flemish master Sir Anthony van Dyck’s large portrait of Archbishop William ...
William Edmondson Sculpture Fetches Auction Record for Outsider Art
ArtfixDaily / January 23rd, 2016
Christie's inaugural sale of self-taught artists on Friday was led by William Edmondson’s Boxer, which brought $785,000, well above its $150,000-250,000 estimate. The price set a record in the category, according to Christie's, surpassing the previous top price set ...
Quirky to Classic Americana Served Up at Sotheby's
Sotheby's / January 21st, 2016
Cornelius Vanderbilt's gold cigar case. A New Orleans Voodoo Clock. And "one of the greatest collections of Americana ever assembled" are what Sotheby's says are on offer this week as part of Americana Week in New York. City-wide auctions, shows, exhibitions and events kicked off on ...
David H. Koch Exits Board of NY's Natural History Museum
ArtfixDaily / January 21st, 2016
Conservative billionaire, philanthropist and oil mogul David H. Koch stepped down from the board of New York's American Natural History Museum in December. He has given millions of dollars to the museum, and the famed dinosaur wing was named after him. His position on the board has ...
Art-Filled Trailer Goes Missing in Los Angeles
LA Times / January 20th, 2016
Artworks by Matisse, Chagall, Miro, Haring and Neiman, along with other valuable items, are missing after a 24-foot long trailer was stolen from a Chatsworth industrial park in Los Angeles. Police are investigating the Nov. 20 disappearance of the 2005 Haulmark trailer parked near ...
High Court Rejects Appeal By Composer Mendelssohn's Family for Picasso Return
AP / January 19th, 2016
Heirs of Felix Mendelssohn will not recoup a Pablo Picasso painting sold under duress by the composer's family during the Nazi era. A Supreme Court decision on Tuesday upheld a lower court ruling that stated the German state of Bavaria was entitled to sovereign immunity in ownership of the ...
'Ray Spillenger: Rediscovery of a Black Mountain College Painter' Opens in Asheville
Citizen-Times / January 18th, 2016
Ray Spillenger: Rediscovery of a Black Mountain College Painter, on view January 22 through May 21, 2016, at the Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center in Asheville, N.C., is a ground-breaking exhibition of work by an overlooked artist who was active at the dawn of American ...
Five of 1500 Artworks From Gurlitt Trove Categorized Nazi Loot
Daily Mail / January 17th, 2016
A task force set up by the German government has determined that just five of 1,500 artworks are Nazi loot from the vast trove discovered in the Munich apartment of late recluse Cornelius Gurlitt. Gurlitt inherited the massive collection from his father, an art dealer who worked with ...
Tacoma Art Museum Gifted 225 Artworks, Plus $14 Million
Seattle Times / January 14th, 2016
Tacoma Art Museum has received a surprise donation of 225 artworks and $14 million from Becky Benaroya, for her 93rd birthday. Benaroya gave her family's collection -- mostly glassworks amassed with her husband Jack, a real-estate developer -- and the funds to expand the museum's footprint by a ...
Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Artists' Resale Royalties Appeal
Lexology / January 13th, 2016
The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal of last year’s Ninth Circuit decision striking down part of the California Resale Royalty Act, reports Lexology. Writes Nicholas M. O'Donnell of Sullivan & Worcester LLP: "The law provided royalties to artists on sales after the work ...
Gagosian Gallery Battles Qatar Royal Family Over Picasso at MoMA
Bloomberg / January 13th, 2016
A sculpture of Pablo Picasso’s mistress and model, Marie-Therese Walter, on view in a current exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, has leaped into the limelight with a court battle over ownership. Picasso’s 1931 sculpture Bust of a Woman was purchased by gallery owner ...
David Bowie, Musician and Artist, Remembered
NYT / January 11th, 2016
“David Bowie was one of my most important inspirations, so fearless, so creative, he gave us magic for a lifetime,” tweeted rapper Kanye West. Legendary musician, artist and actor David Bowie died of cancer on Sunday. He was 69. Over the course of five decades, London-born Bowie made 25 ...
Sotheby's Buys Art Agency, Partners
WSJ / January 11th, 2016
Sotheby's announced on Monday that it would buy a boutique art advisory firm called Art Agency, Partners for a total up to $85 million. The deal is for $50 million with an additional $35 million pledged for undisclosed performance targets. New York-based Art Agency, ...
JMW Turner's House Nears $3.5 Million in Donations for Restoration
NY Times / January 10th, 2016
A simple white country house designed by artist J.M.W. Turner is set become a tourist attraction just 10 miles from London after donors raise about $3.5 million for a restoration. As of Jan. 4, the New York Times reported $225,000 was still needed. Turner, considered Britain’s greatest ...
Another Turner Painting "Saved" For the UK
Telegraph / January 10th, 2016
A seminal work by British artist JMW Turner has been "saved for the nation" after its late owner's will specified the artwork should remain in the U.K. Mulitmillionaire Harry Hyams died in December, leaving Turner's "Dutch Boats in a Gale" on loan to the National Gallery of Art in London where ...
Brothers Pursue Stepmom's Estate Over Art Sales
NY Post / January 7th, 2016
Art dealer Sam Salz died in 1981, leaving most of his estate and art collection with works by the likes of Monet and Degas to his two sons, Marc and Andre Salz. Salz had represented America’s richest collectors including Paul Mellon, Henry Ford 2d, and David Rockefeller, reports the NY Post. ...
Italy to Put Over $300 Million into Cultural Projects
New York Times / January 6th, 2016
Italy's museums and cultural sites are set to receive a 300 million euro ($322 million) investment from the government over the next three years, reports the New York Times. In the wake of the recent theft of 17 artworks from Castelvecchio Museum, a 14th-century fortress in Verona, museum ...